The Bills head to Detroit for a highly anticipated matchup between two of the best teams in the NFL. Buffalo is looking to rebound from their worst defensive performance since the 2021 season after their 44-42 loss to the Rams in Week 14. The Lions are on an 11-game winning streak and have overcome a rash of injuries while maintaining a one-game lead in the competitive NFC North.

The Bills came up short in a 44-42 shootout to the Los Angeles Rams, ending their seven-game winning streak and leaving them with a 12% chance at the number one seed in the AFC. The Rams started the game with a 12-play, 70-yard scoring drive, where they went 3-3 on third down with little resistance or pressure from the Bills’ defense. This drive would serve as a precursor for what we would see the rest of the game.

The Buffalo Bills defeated the San Francisco 49ers 35-10 on a snowy Sunday night to clinch their fifth straight AFC East crown. Buffalo is the first team to clinch a division this season and the earliest (5 weeks remaining) to do so since the 2009 Indianapolis Colts. With the Bills’ seventh consecutive win and sixth straight game at 30+ points, Sean McDermott is now 8-0 coming off a bye week in his career.

The Bills are fresh off the bye week and welcome the reigning NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers to Highmark Stadium for Sunday Night Football. Buffalo is 7-0 off the bye since Sean McDermott became the head coach and is facing a desperate 49ers team that has lost its last two games. Brock Purdy returns to the lineup but San Francisco will be missing some key players on both sides of the ball. The Buffalo will be without Dalton Kincaid but All-Pro LB Matt Milano is expected to make his return to the field.

The 5-2 Bills travel to the Pacific Northwest for a match-up between division leaders with the 4-3 Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks are fresh off their impressive victory over the Atlanta Falcons, with the Bills coming in on a two-game winning streak after their week 7 victory over the Tennessee Titans. Both teams will be looking to extend their division leads, but injuries to some key players may impact the outcome.

The Bills season started a little bumpy against the Cardinals on Sunday before completing consecutive scoring drives to end the first half and begin the second half on their way to a 34-28 comeback win.

Will the mantra “everyone is going to eat” show up in the first game when we see the revamped offense that Joe Brady has been molding all off-season? The Cardinals' defense is young, but the team is entering the game with a chip on their shoulder, as seen with defensive lineman L.J. Collier’s quote, “I really do think Week 1 in Buffalo we're gonna put the league on notice..”

The Bills played their most entertaining game of the preseason Saturday in their final game before roster cutdowns with a 31-26 loss to the Carolina Panthers. All of the expected starters heading into the regular season sat to prevent any more injuries to an already banged-up roster. Some positives came out of this game, but the challenge is how many will translate to the regular season since most players will not be on the 53-man roster after 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

I’ve never heard a player come out and say, “We’re not game-planning for these games,” but it makes sense. I view preseason games as a way to identify players' performance more than the teams’ performance.